Method of brightening the colors in the subtractive synthesis of color photography



METHOD OF BRIGHTENING THE COLORS IN THE SUB SYNTHESIS -OF C0 PHOTOGRAPH Filled Jul 1936 .H u l I 1` N HL,'1.|. !5H W T @L 6 uw if W W v I.. l.' Il Il,

[1- G. VAI/vars) Patented Jan. 30, 1940 METHOD OF BRIGHTENING THE COLORS IN THE SUBTBACTIVE SYNTHESIS OF COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY Francisco G. Yanes, New York, N. Y., assigner, by

direct and mesne assignments, of thirty per cent to Tomas Pacanins, New York, N. Y., and iifteen per cent to Florencio Gomez, Trujillo City, Dominican Republic` Application July 8, 1936, Serial No. 89,502

yfclaims.

l My invention consists in a method of brightening the colors produced by pigments in the subtractive synthesis and the example adopted to demonstrate such method relates to improvements in color pictures made by assembling complementary colored images upon a white reecting surface; the purpose of the invention is to eliminate the excess of absorption caused by the usual colored transparencies which, when assembled, act as a combination of iilters; the principle involved in the example of the invention. is that color lters, especially when com- Abined, comparatively absorb much more light is counteracted in practical work by using very than color objects; and the improvements in-A the result are such that can be even attained,

as in the example, when substituting combined color transparencies-or light transmitting assembled elements-by1 opaque or light refiectv ing individual, minute areas, so arranged as to contribute to the chromatic synthesis by direct reilection. This eiiect is obtained by producing ior the synthesis part images in which the tones corresponding to the actual colors are broken and permit one .image to show through another. l'Iiie improvement obtained by this method. of producing pictures is herein applied to pictures to be examined by reiiected light and by using pigments of low transmission in order to gain the brilliancy of their greater reecting power. But it is obvious that the same method could be applied to part images to be examined by transmitted light or colored with pigments of better transmission as long asthere will always be avgreat improvementl in the result. A single, color light transmitting, minute area, backed by a white reilecting support or fully illuminated, when combined with a similar minute area oi' another color, side by side, will furnish an additive eiiect of combined colors of vgreater -bril- .l'iancy than the subtractive eilect obtained when said minute areas are superimposed.

f In the usual method the white surface acts as the illuminant and reflects the light transmitted by the color transparencies, which causes a great loss -oi light. It is well known that the combined transmission of assembled lters is equivalent to the product of their individualV light and white paper sometimes even absorbs 40%. Ir'it is considered that the incident light passes twice through the colored transparencies.

thin images for the synthesis; but the colors .thus obtained are degenerated to a faint aquarelle sort of tint or, when more saturated, produce some kind of greyish fog or general darkness all over the picture.

When instead of lters, color surfaces are considered, the situation is different; a red object almost-reflects 100% of red light, and a yellow object as much if not more red and green light than objects of those colors. According to the present example of the invention the brilliancy of a color is increased by using, instead of a light transmitting colored image, an image transformed into color reflecting areas; and the general brightness of the picture will depJend upon the number of these light reecting images combined in the synthesis. In this case the white reflecting support merely supplies the whites and tone values, the last in combination with the4 opaque particles of color matter.

Regarding the drawing:

Fig. I is a section of a color picture showing the synthesis oi.' colors by reflection.

Fig. II presents another form.

In Fig. I: 2 is an opaque yellow image in a thin layer of a transparent photographic material; 3 is an opaque magenta image in another layer;` and 4 an opaque blue-green image in a third layer; these layers are assembled'with their images in registration upon the white reiiecting support I. In this form of the synthesis, the images 3 and 4 have beenbroken into minute areas, as for instance, by interposing a screen in manner known to the art when printing the black and white color-value images; this permits the showing of underneath images and the synthesis is obtained by a sort of..

pointillist eilect. Some reflections and` combin'ation of colors by the acting of the incident light are shown in 8 magenta, 9 blue, 1 yellow, l2 orange, I3 violet, I 4 green, 6 white.

In Fig. 1I: a similar section'is shown in which only the opaque blue-green top image 4 is broken. The image 5 is a duo tone red-orange opaque image in which the heavier tones 5a, 5b are reds andthe half tones 5 orange; in this image the` commonyparts oi the magenta and yellow images are already combinedrthe yellow image 2 showing only in the lighter tones. AUnder this arrangement,the pictureis asA4 brilliant as injthe `one described in Fig. I, but the has arations ofthe minute areas.

gained by the fact that only the upper image is broken. The, warm colors and combinations already'formed reect the incident light pro-- ducing in 5a red-orange, in 5b deep red, in 5 orange. Other colors 9 blue-green, 6 white, 1 yellow, etc., are produced as in Fig. I.

In the illustrated arrangements three color images are considered, but it is obvious that the same method of producing the synthesis by direct reilection can be applied in two color separation, and the bi-color opaque red-orange image 5 shown in Fig. lI may be used for the purpose. In the same arrangements the images have been described as held in transparent layers, but one of`these layers may have been coated ona white nonexpanding support and be used for the lower image. The images have been also describedA as opaque, which does not mean a muddy patch of color but tone values produced by particles of opaque, light reflecting color matter, which however, lwould not render a good color eect by transmitted light or projection on a screen. In other Words, the opacity of the images must not be absolute, obviously because the blacks and grays could not be then subtractively produced. lRegarding the white reflecting base it could be substituted by a buil or other pale-color surface to obtain a desired eilect.

For the practicing of the method, color ser aration negatives are rst obtained by well known means and color-value positives printed from them on a photographic emulsion coated on a very `thin transparent support. When the ar- Irangement adopted calls for the breaking of a given image the same is printed through a screen of very fine grain in manner known to the art and reduced if necessary to ensurev clear sep- When not, the positives are prited as usually. For the toning f of the yellow, magenta and blue-green images well'known formulas canbe used, as for example: the chromate of lead toning for the yellow, which comprisesa previous bleaching to ferrocyanide of lead followed by immersion in a bichromate solution; Afor the magenta, the carmine color obtained by toning a bromide print previously sulphided in a chloride of gold and sulphocyanate of potassium bath; and for the blue, when opaque, a previous .bleaching to ferrocyanide of lead, and when transparent to ferrocyanide of silver, followed by an acid and `diluted solution of ferric chloride; xing, washing, reducing being also steps of these well known toning operations. Other known formulas can also be used, as the mercuric-potasslum iodide for the yellow, the sodium selenosulphate for the magenta and several iron combinations for the blue-green.

Regarding the bi-color, opaque, red-orange image, I found that by adding to the developer a solvent of the silver halide as ammonium bromide and carbonate, the positive, after sulphided and toned, in the gold-chloride and sulphocyanate bath, showed a duo-tone where the denser parts remained more or less unaltered, while the half and lighter tones became orange. By applying the same treatment to a positive printed in a chlorobromide emulsion, a redder tone substituted the carmine of the heavier -tones and oranges and even yellows showed in the lighter tones. The opaque image thus reaiaaecv Y sulting showed a complete scale of warm colors and was complementary to the blue-green image.

This duo-tone red-orange image can be obtained by printing the positive on a chlorobromide emulsion and developing it in an-ordinary amidol and sodium sulphite developer; the sulphite, being a solvent of the chloride of silver, will be assisted by adding one, two or more c. c. ,-according to the desired result-of a 5% solution of ammonium bromide and carbonate for every 100 c. c. of developer.

One oi the advantages of the method described, outside of the brightness of the colors, is that the important red-orange combination is not produced by fading dyestuiis but by converting the image into sulphide of gold, which is fast to light, atmospheric conditions and many reagents; and so, the whole picture can be re` garded as permanent.

Considering the prior art I Wish to state that I do not pretend any invention in the method in general of combining subtractive part images but in the step of breaking the tones corresponding to the colors in said images-to obtain a betternblending with the possibility of using pigments of low transmission and corresponding greater reilecting power when said part imagesv are colored and assembled upon a white reecting surface.

After having described to the best of my knowledge the new method I wish to be understood that the present disclosure is for the purpose of illustration only and that my invention includes any equivalents of variations -which fall within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. As a new article J'of manufacture, a color picture of an object comprising an opaque whitish reflecting support bearing, superimposed in register upon one of its surfaces, a plurality of layers containing colored positive images of laratedminute areas, said broken-tone images permitting the showing of images underneath and producing a sort oi pointillist eiIect.

-2. 'I'he method of producing a color photograph of an object comprising making a set of continuous-tone color-separation negatives from said object, producing a continuous-tone positiveby printing through one of said negatives, producing a broken-tone positive by printing another of said negatives through a screen of very ne grain, producing positives by printing through anyand all other negatives of the set, converting said positives to a corresponding set of layers] containing images colored substractively-complementary by particles of opaque, light reecting color matter, .assembling the color-image layers -in register upon an opaque whitish reiiecting support by placing the continuous-tone image in immediate contact with the support and by superimposing the brokentone image last of ali upon all the other layers.

F. G. YANES. 

